Global Conflicts Come Home: Oil Shock, Diplomatic Scandal, and Ukraine's Near-Miss for Johnson

Brent crude hit $108.5 a barrel on Monday — a 3.7% single-day surge — after Houthi forces captured the strategic island of Perim in the Bab al-Mandab strait and forced Saudi Arabia to close its vital east-west pipeline. British gas prices jumped 5% to 208.73p a therm, their highest since December 2022. For UK consumers already battling cost-of-living pressures, this isn't a distant geopolitical abstraction — it's petrol prices climbing and energy bills threatening to...